"Other" - that's been the box to tick for me since the start of my, er, writing career all those years ago. For example, I was in this, happily still available 13 years later (kudos to Peter Quartermain and the late and greatly lamented Ric Caddel for putting together that wonderful project).

And now, The Other Room, whose third birthday I was delighted to attend last year as a guest reader. This ongoing venture in Manchester owes everything to the efforts and imagination of James Davies, Tom Jenks and Scott Thurston, helped by several others.

If you can't get to their events you can always buy the fourth annual edition of The Other Room Anthology, which is out now, crammed with contributions by people who have read there over the past year: Tim Allen, David Berridge, Andrea Brady, Rachel Lois Clapham & Stephen Perry, Jennifer Cooke, and, well, many other brilliant poets and writers further down the alphabet. It costs £6.75 inc postage if you live in the UK, and £8 if you live anywhere else. There is huge variety here. Don't miss.